Union of Brest

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The Union of Brest (Latin Unio Brestinis , Polish Unia brzeska ) was a treaty between leading representatives of the Ruthenian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church in Poland-Lithuania . It included a connection of the Orthodox eparchies to the structure and canon law of the Catholic Church while maintaining the Byzantine Orthodox rite in liturgy and spiritual practice. It was decided in Brest in 1596 and is one of the central events in the political and religious history of East Central Europe in the early modern period . The United Greek Catholic Church in Poland-Lithuania arose from it .

prehistory

Orthodox population (green) in Poland-Lithuania in 1573
Jesuit campaigns for the Union among the people of Vitebsk, drawing by Ilya Repin, 1893

The western areas of the Kievan Rus belonged to the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1341 . However, the Orthodox population was able to maintain their structures in the Catholic countries. After the Union of Lublin in 1569, which united the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland in a personal union, the Ruthenian Orthodox Church began to seek a union with the Roman Catholic Church, also in order to have equal rights with the Catholic clergy. According to contemporary documents, there was also a moral decline within the Orthodox clergy with the purchase of offices ( simony ) and concubinates of the clergy.

The Jesuits campaigned intensively for a church union among the Orthodox population. The writings of Peter Skarga and Benedikt Herbest had a particular influence .

The Orthodox Church in the Grand Duchy of Moscow became independent in 1589 with its own patriarch . The Orthodox Church in Poland-Lithuania remained with the Patriarchate of Constantinople .

In 1590, the Ruthenian Orthodox bishops first passed a declaration in which they expressed their will to form a union with the Roman Catholic Church. In 1592 King Sigismund declared his enthusiastic approval. In 1594, the bishops passed the Decretum de recipienda et suscipienda communione Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae , in which they formulated their ideas.

Union of Brest

Negotiations in Krakow

On June 12, 1595, Metropolitan Michael Rahoza and the bishops of Volodymyr, Lutsk and Pinsk wrote letters to Pope Clement VIII and King Sigismund III. from Poland. The bishops Kyrill Terlecki and Hypatios Pociej then traveled to Krakow , where they negotiated the terms of a union with representatives of the king and the apostolic nuncio . On August 2nd, King Sigismund declared that he would receive the rights and possessions of the Ruthenian Church, that the Ruthenian clergy would receive the same rights as the Catholic clergy, that the churches and monasteries would not be Latinized and other rights and guarantees. The apostolic nuncio confirmed the regulations.

Negotiations in Rome

Then Kyrill Terlecki and Hypatios Pociej traveled to Rome , where they arrived on November 25th. They were enthusiastically received by Pope Clement VIII and the prelates there. Special regulations were agreed, such as the waiver of the filioque in the creed and the maintenance of the Julian calendar . In the bull Magnus Dominus et laudabilis , Pope Clement VIII declared the return of the Ruthenian bishops to the Catholic Church and reported on the formation of the Union, the arrival of the bishops in Rome and the special agreements. In a letter dated February 7, 1596, he called on the Ruthenian bishops to declare their consent to the union in a synod. In further letters he asked the king, the princes and magnates in Poland-Lithuania to place the new church under their protection.

In March 1596 the two bishops were back in Lutsk. In May there was resistance from the Ruthenian Orthodox MPs in the Sejm in Warsaw, led by Konstanty Ostrogski , the powerful voivod of Kiev. The Orthodox brotherhoods in Vilnius and Lwów called on the faithful to resist the Union.

On June 12th, King Sigismund III announced that the Orthodox Church would join the Roman Catholic Church. On August 21, Metropolitan Michael Rahoza called a synod for October 6.

Synod of Brest

On October 6, 1596, six Orthodox bishops and other clergymen met with representatives of the Roman Catholic Church and the Polish king in the Nikolaikirche in Brest. Two bishops and the Orthodox clergy who rejected the union were not invited.

On October 9, after a solemn communal service, Archbishop Germanos Zahorski von Połock read out the approval of the Orthodox clergy present for the Union. Afterwards all participants moved to the Catholic Marienkirche and celebrated the Te Deum again . On October 10, the rejecting Orthodox bishops, archimandrites and other clergy were officially removed from their offices and banned (anathema).

Results

The Orthodox eparchies submitted to the Pope in canonical and organizational terms, the liturgy and the spiritual life continued to follow the Byzantine Orthodox rite .

Signatory

The Union of Brest was signed by

Orthodox representatives

as well as some other clergy.

Roman Catholic representatives

as well as other clergy and nobles

opponent

Most of the Orthodox clergy and the Orthodox nobility rejected the union in its intended form. On October 6th, their representatives met for their own meeting in Brest. Participants were

as well as the heads of most of the Orthodox monasteries, other clergymen, representatives of the Orthodox brotherhoods and the Orthodox nobility.

They declared the Union to be invalid because it took place without the consent of the Orthodox Patriarchs and an ecumenical council. They withdrew their recognition as Orthodox clergy from the United Bishops.

The two Orthodox bishops were declared deposed by the United Church and banned ( anathema ). King Sigismund III. deprived them of all spiritual rights.

consequences

Poland-Lithuania

Most of the churches and monasteries were transferred to the United Church by order of the Polish king.

The eparchies of Lwów and Przemyśl initially remained Orthodox, as did a few monasteries, such as the Kiev Pechersk Lavra and the monasteries of Supraśl , Żydaczów and Derman . Resistance also came from the Orthodox brotherhoods , especially in Lwów, Vilnius and Kiev. 1620 put Patriarch Theophanes III. from Jerusalem again an Orthodox metropolitan from Kiev and a few other Orthodox bishops, but without the consent of the Polish king and without real administration of the bishops. It was not until 1632 that King Władysław IV granted the Orthodox Church legal status.

By the end of the 17th century, almost all churches and monasteries had converted to the Uniate Church, in 1702 also the Lwów Eparchy .

Russian Empire

Kiev came under the control of the Cossacks in 1648 and under the Russian Empire in 1667. There the United Church was dissolved.

After the partition of Poland in 1795, Orthodox eparchies again emerged in the areas that had become part of the Russian Empire. In the Russian governorates of Siedlce and Lublin , the union had to be abolished in 1875; the believers were forced to convert to the Orthodox Church .

Galicia

The United Church had a better position in the Austrian division of the old Rzeczpospolita, the kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria , which perished in 1795 . Here the church continued to exist among the Ukrainian population , later also during the period of the Second Polish Republic (1918–1939). Here she became one of the main pillars of the Ukrainian national movement.

Ukrainian SSR

In 1944 the United Church in Galicia was banned after the annexation to the USSR, the churches and monasteries were transferred to the Orthodox Church. Most of the priests, monks and nuns were arrested and some were murdered.

Ukraine and Belarus

In 1990 the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was officially approved again, and in 1991 the Belarusian Greek Catholic Church was established .

reviews

In 1995, Pope John Paul II paid tribute to the Union of Brest and the Greek Catholic Churches in an apostolic letter on the occasion of the 400th anniversary.

The Orthodox Churches do not recognize the legality of the Union of Brest to this day and criticize its split from the Orthodox Church.

For years, the Pro Oriente Foundation has endeavored to mediate through interdenominational scientific publications and offers to meet people.

See also

Web links

literature

  • The Union of Brest . In: Joachim Bahlcke, Stefan Rohdewald, Thomas Wünsch (eds.): Places of remembrance in East Central Europe . Berlin 2013, pp. 897ff.
  • Ihor Harasim: The Union of Brest. Requirements and motives for their creation. In: Johann Marte (Hrsg.): International Research Discussion of the Pro Oriente Foundation for the Brester Union (= The Eastern Christianity. NF Vol. 54). Augustinus-Verlag, Würzburg 2004, ISBN 3-7613-0209-6 , pp. 11-38.
  • Johann Marte, Oleh Turij, Ernst Christoph Suttner, Archbishop Jeremiasz (Anchimiuk) (ed.): The Brester Union. Part I: Prehistory and events of the years 1595/1596 (= The Eastern Christianity . NF Vol. 58). Echter Verlag Würzburg, 2010. ISBN 978-3-429-04179-3 , 70 pages (interdenominational publication)
  • Ernst Chr. Suttner, Klaus Zelzer , Michaela Zelzer : Documents of the Brest Union. In: Eastern Church Studies . Vol. 56, 2007, pp. 273-321.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Ernst Chr. Suttner, Klaus Zelzer , Michaela Zelzer : Documents of the Brester Union. In: Eastern Church Studies . Vol. 56, 2007, pp. 273-321.
  2. Article of the Brest Union ( Memento of the original from December 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (english, pdf) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.archeparchy.ca
  3. ^ Katrin Boeckh: Stalinism in Ukraine: the reconstruction of the Soviet system after the Second World War . Harrassowitz-Verlag 2007, ISBN 978-3-447-05538-3 (habilitation); Pp. 25, 70, 102, 478ff.
  4. The Union of Brest and the wounds in the Russian Church to the present Orthodox calendar (German)
  5. ^ Johann Marte (Hrsg.): International Research Discussion of the Pro Oriente Foundation on the Brester Union (= The Eastern Christianity. NF Vol. 54). Augustinus-Verlag, Würzburg 2004, ISBN 3-7613-0209-6